The gig economy is a term that describes a portion of the U.S. economy that is made up of freelancers. It is often used, interchangeably, with “sharing economy,” “collaborative consumption” or “access economy.”

This growing army of gig workers has become an integral part of the workforce, available on an on-demand basis.

This has allowed innovative businesses to pivot and remain nimble. Indeed, in an era where consumers are increasingly more interested in access over ownership, flexible workforces have become powerful tools for businesses.

Although many believe this segment of the workforce may be a fad that will soon to be diminished when unemployment numbers eventually plummet, a closer look at available data indicates otherwise.

Reportedly, the gig economy has grown every year over the past five, and there are solid indications that this trend will continue.

Further, a report by Fieldglass indicates that 95% of B2B companies not only understand, but recognize, the need to incorporate the gig economy into their business models.

The American workers are changing. Many regard employment as a job totally unrelated to what their life goals may be.

Goals that were formed in their minds at a young age and continue to burn deep in their hearts.

Even highly skilled workers earning terrific incomes imagine what it would be like to do what they love to do rather than what they have to do.

Although born out of necessity, gig work has become a compromise for millions of hard-working Americans.

Freelancing allows them to choose to do what they love and what they are best at. It provides the flexibility to work the hours of their choice, spend more time with family and become highly skilled experts in a field they love.

Although each category can have similar insurance product needs, they prefer to learn about it, and make the purchase, in different manners.

Whether you are an agency or an insurer, outsourcing your marketing needs to a gig workers can make more sense than loading your payroll with different personality types so that you can accommodate the preferences of the various market segments.

Or, many companies are electing to leverage gig workers to augment their current full-time staff. Gig work isn’t a full-time or part-time discussion – they can be complimentary.

Whether you designate this growing on-demand labor force as the flexible workforce, gig economy, freelancers or outsourcing, there is no doubt that this workforce can provide skilled on-demand workers to the insurance industry.

These are workers who are doing what they know best and are passionate about.

Principals in the insurance industry should look to this flexible workforce to streamline processes that affect consumer satisfaction and save payroll dollars in the process.

As the gig economy continues to grow as a viable employment alternative for many, traditional insurers can get ahead of the curve by leveraging them and embracing flexibility.

As common as insurance is, most people do not understand this complex financial instrument.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey (2014), insurance is a consumer’s fifth highest monthly expenditure behind housing, transport, food and pensions. For many Americans, if you add up all types of insurance (auto, health, etc.), monthly total premiums can surpass housing costs.

But the insurance industry has its fair share of participants (companies, agents, wholesalers) who thrive on complexity and make sales that do not fit the client’s need. There has been a tendency — especially with annuities, life insurance and long-term-care insurance — to introduce insurance products with more options. And each time an option is added, it becomes more challenging to understand that product.

Often, this complexity is not a matter of intent; it is simply that even those within the industry or those who participate in the insurance procurement and review process (third party advisers such as financial planners, CPAs, etc.) do not understand insurance. The majority of people and companies do a good job, but there is a significant gap in insurance literacy in this country.

The Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights was created to provide simple, easy-to-understand guidelines for everyone involved in the insurance ecosystem, including consumers, insurance agents, wholesaler, insurance companies and financial advisers.

The Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights is based on the simple premise that insurance agents, wholesalers and companies should place the consumer’s interests first, to the best of their abilities. The Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights provides simple, clear and reasonable guidelines to accomplish this goal. It is a standard of excellence for all in the insurance industry.

The importance of this movement is that, for many years, insurance has been a black box, something people know they need, although they have no real, unbiased information about it. And most people do not have the right coverage to fit their needs.

In my 30-year career, starting as an agent before making the transition to a fee-based insurance consultant/litigation consultant/author/consumer advocate, I have seen that the situation behind the scenes is often not pretty. However, the majority of these situations could be avoided if all members of the insurance industry followed the Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights.

Insurance consumers should have the right to receive any information that they request in a timely fashion. They should also be provided with all relevant information needed to make a decision in an easy-to-understand fashion. The goal is to not flood the consumer with something like a mutual fund prospectus; rather, it is to provide them with useful information.

It is always a win-win situation when all parties come out ahead and are on the same side of the table. Truth always has a way of coming out, and, to get ahead in this digital world where there are fewer secrets and more information and choices, those who strive to provide the highest-quality service and information will thrive.

For many years, consumers have ended up with insurance they don’t need, with premiums they either cannot afford or really see no value in paying. It is time to change the conversation so that consumers end up with coverage that fits their needs, with premiums they can afford into the future.

The Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights is a playbook for consumers, agents and companies to follow that puts everyone on the same page.

Monitoring an insurance policy and making adjustments to an insurance portfolio is something that is almost always overlooked. Insurance needs change. Sometimes, the change is as simple as getting a new car, while other times it can be more complex and overlooked, like having a new child who is not added as a beneficiary to an existing life insurance policy.

This is where the Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights matters. Making these adjustments, just like having regular maintenance done on your car, is what will ensure that a consumer has the right coverage in place at the time of making a claim. If the right coverage is not in place at claim time, what is the point of having insurance?

While it is not a panacea, and there still would be bad actors and inappropriate sales, the Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights is a call to action and gives guidance to consumers on what to look for, what to expect and what they have the right to.

Knowledge is power, and the power should be in the hands of the customer. Having and knowing your rights will protect and benefit consumers, along with calling the insurance community to task when needed and helping consumers and agents optimize insurance coverage and minimize premiums. Join the Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights movement!

The Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights movement is gathering momentum, and I want to thank all of its supporters. Recently, the Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights has received numerous mentions in the press:

As part of a joint effort with Chris Huntley’s Whole Life Rebellion that called for signing the petition, Forbes.com’s Barbara Marquand stated: “Sign the ‘Insurance Bill of Rights,’ a petition created by Tony Steuer from InsuranceLiteracy.org. Among other things, the bill says agents should act in consumers’ best interest and recommend affordable and appropriate coverage. (Click here to view the article.)

In an article on PTmoney.com titled “The Truth About Whole Life Insurance — Ethical Obligations and the Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights), it states, “Doctors take the Hippocratic oath and financial advisers the fiduciary oath. These are ethical codes professionals swear to live by in the execution of their duties. As of today, the life insurance industry has no such code, which is a travesty. Tony Steuer (InsuranceLiteracy.org) has created the Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights on Change.org, which seeks to implement a similar code of conduct in the insurance industry requiring all agents to act in the consumers’ best interest. The desired result would be agents targeting consumers’ specific needs to provide them with the most affordable and appropriate life insurance for their unique circumstances. Insurance agents should be held accountable for the advice they offer.” (Click here to read the article.)

And that is just some of the talk. So, what’s the next step? Please continue to share the campaign via email and on social media. And you can now contribute to the Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights movement through the petition page on Change.org, or you can support the Insurance Consumer Bill of Rights movement on Indiegogo.

With the recent terrorist attack in San Bernardino, CA, fresh on people’s minds, workplace violence has received major media coverage, but little to no attention is paid to deaths by suicide even though rates in the U.S. have gone up considerably in recent years. Suicides claim an average of 36,000 lives annually, and, while most people take their lives in or near home, suicide on the job is also increasing.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that workplace suicides rose to 282 in 2013, the highest level since the numbers have been reported. In 2014, the suicide rate went down slightly to 271, but that is still the second highest level. The annual average number of suicides deaths that occurred at work during the time period 2003 – 2014 is 237, for a total of 2,848. Since 2007, the numbers have been above the average.

The rise in suicide rates at work is even more significant given that overall homicides in the workplace have been steadily decreasing since the mid-’90s.

The obvious question is: Why is this startling rise in suicide rates at work occurring?

“The reasons for suicide are complex, no matter where they take place,” said Christine Montier, CMO of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “Usually, many factors are at play.”

Many suicide prevention experts linked the increase in one way or another to the Great Recession. I believe the recession played a major role because it put a triple whammy on people. Housing, which has traditionally been the major investment and retirement source for Americans, was in the toilet. Foreclosures were at an all-time high. Companies were laying off people, and job prospects were slim.

I believe that many working people experienced daily stress about employment. Every day, they might be laid off. Many were severely overworked because they needed to pick up the slack caused by reductions in workforces. They faced continuous fear of taking time off for vacations or illness and had few options to leave because jobs elsewhere were scarce.

Put all these issues in the pot together, and some people could not see their way out of their dilemma except through suicide.

Researchers in a study published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suspect that suicides occur at work because the perpetrators wanted to protect family and friends from discovering their bodies.

In the midst of the fear of terrorist attacks and active shooting incidents, organizations are significantly challenged in how to deal with the spectrum of violence they may face. However, it is critical that organizations not shy away from addressing these issues and muster the resources to engage their employees.

Managers need clear guidelines on healthy approaches to manage and prevent violence in the multiple forms it can take. Two industries that have taken the issue of suicides at work head-on are construction and law enforcement.

What can management do?

Promote awareness

Stop thinking and acting like “it couldn’t happen at your company.” Provide regular communications through the channels that are most effective in your company regarding the potential warning signs that employees or others are at risk of acting in a violent manner. See a list of the classic early warning signs of workplace violence here. Many of the signs are also telltale signs symptoms of depression and suicidal behavior.

Sally Spencer-Thomas, Psy.D., co-founder of Working Minds, a Colorado-based workplace-suicide-prevention organization, described a giveaway that’s more obvious than one might suspect: The employee will tell you.

When contemplating suicide, a person can be entirely consumed by the thought, she said. The problem may be coded in conversation—the individual may talk about death often, for instance.

As uncomfortable as it may seem, it’s important to bite the bullet and ask the awkward questions. “It is very hard to resist a human who is coming at you with compassion,” Spencer-Thomas observed. She suggests that HR professionals frame their questions in an understanding manner, giving the employee the opportunity to explain his or her condition. Statements such as, “I’ve noticed that …,” “It’s understandable given …,” and “I’m wondering if it’s true for you…” should be followed by a nonjudgmental statement.

Promote resources available to help employees

If your firm has an employee assistance program (EAP) or your healthcare provider offers counseling service, make sure that managers are trained about the program and skilled in how to make an effective employee referral. If your employee usage rates are below your industry average, you need to assess why and take action to increase usage. Talking to a professional counselor can make a big difference to a troubled employee.

If your firm does not offer an EAP, then identify community resources that can assist your employees and keep the list current.

HR should also have a strategy to deal with the devastating impact of a homicide or suicide at work.

I believe the time has come for executives to take a comprehensive approach to violence that occurs in the workplace and especially to bring mental health and suicide issues out of the closet into mainstream workplace conversations. We are past the point where organizations can think of suicide as a dirty little secret and hope it will go away. The time has come for meaningful action.

Don’t wait until something happens and people lose their lives. If you really mean that your employees are your most important asset, now is the time to step up.

A close look at the data, however, indicates that the gig economy is indeed large and growing. Pushing this growth are Generation Xers, who typically prefer more flexible work arrangements, and Millennials, who often have no other choice. The gig economy is rapidly changing the country’s economic landscape-for better or worse.

Media stories minimizing the size and growth of the gig economy typically cite the narrower BLS numbers. The last time the BLS conducted a total inventory of contingent workers (according to its own definition) was 10 years ago, when it published its 2005 Contingent Work Supplement (CWS). This report determined that in 2005, just 1.8% to 4.1% of the total workforce could be considered contingent.

While this inventory is now way out of date (Congress has refused to finance an update), the BLS does release monthly data on one conspicuous component of the gig economy: self-identified “self-employed” workers. Because this data series is very current, and because it shows a gradual decline over the past several decades, it is often cited by skeptics as proof that the so-called rise of the gig economy is overblown. After examining several BLS measures, Wall Street Journal reporters Josh Zumbrun and Anna Louie Sussman conclude that there has been no growth whatsoever in gig-economy employment.

But these BLS estimates leave out a sizable chunk of the true gig economy.Consider this: An agency temp, an on-call staffer and even a standard part-time employee all find themselves in an irregular work environment-and yet many are ignored by the BLS definition.

What, then, would the gig economy look like if we included all contingent workers? By looking at historical CWS data, the GAO found that a whopping 30.6% of laborers were contingent in 2005, up slightly from 1999. Further, by analyzing more recent General Social Survey (GSS) data, the GAO determined that this share grew to 40.4% as of 2010. (To be sure, some of this growth may be because of differences in the sample populations surveyed.) If anything, this hefty share underestimates the gig economy. Virtually no full-time workers would self-identify as contingent workers, but at least some alterna­tively employed individuals-such as a full-time Uber driver—consider themselves regular full-time workers.

Moreover, the gig economy is not only large-but also growing. While it’s true that monthly BLS data show a decline in self-employment, other categories of gig work have surged. For example, the same data show that the part-time share of the workforce has risen by about 2 percentage points since the Great Recession. Similarly, we can surmise that independent contractors make up an increasing share of the workforce: According to research by the American Action Forum, the country added more than 2 million independent contracting jobs between 2010 and 2014, accounting for nearly 30% of all jobs added during that period. After looking at types of work by industry, economist Gerald Friedman estimates that fully 85% of net new jobs added since 2005 have been irregular.

Gig employment is by no means a new reality. In fact, for most of American history, irregular work was the norm: In 1900, a staggering 41% of U.S. workers were farmers (the original “gig”), and many of the rest made a living as small-town self-employed business owners. To be sure, over the postwar era, such owner-producers made up an ever-dwindling share of the total. By 2000, fewer than 2% of workers were farmers, and big-box retail chains had marginalized mom-and-pop stores virtually to extinction. However, in the last decade or so, we’ve seen the pendulum start to swing back. In agriculture and retail, much of the growth has been at the bottom of the market, from the small-scale organic farmers surging in popularity to the do-it-yourselfers selling “artisanal” products with great success (see:“The New Frugality“).

Meanwhile, since the 1980s, generational forces have been tilting the economy toward more gig-like work arrangements. Boomer young adults were the first to separate from the conventional 9-to-5 jobs that G.I.s and Silent enjoyed, preferring to “get by” rather than sell out. Xers took this attitude even further and continue to work piecemeal jobs by choice at a much higher rate than other generations (see:“More American Workers Are Temping and Part-Timing“). Additionally, the rise of the sharing economy afforded Xers the chance to work as little or as much as they wanted depending on their personal obligations and financial needs (see:“The Sharing Economy Grows Up“).

Millennials, by choice or not, have similarly flocked to piecemeal, part-time gigs. Though some Millennials are undoubtedly the tech-savvy coders and entrepreneurs forgoing 9-to-5 jobs in favor of flashy startups, a much larger share would prefer the comfort of a full-time position. This generation joins their elders in this contingent labor force, though as “perma-temps” stuck in underemployment rather than part-time workers by choice.

The growth of gig work promises to have a profound impact on the economy at large. On the one hand, employers have less reason than ever to invest in their talent, and workers are no longer certain where their next paycheck is coming from. But on the other hand, this paradigm could create a flexible, streamlined economy in which wages adjust rapidly, leading to shorter and shallower recessions. If one thing is for sure, it’s that the gig economy is real-and it’s here to stay.